Internet Overexposure Syndrome

This instability extends to identity itself. Where offline identity is grounded in lived experience, online identity forms through affinity and alignment. We become collections of interests, allegiances, and aesthetics. The internet’s second self becomes a curatorial project, constantly revised according to shifting community standards and platform... See more

The shift from “yeah” to “yes” or vice versa, a two-hour delay instead of the usual twenty minutes, the use of exclamation points instead of periods—these minute changes can and do often signal real relational ruptures. The problem isn’t that we’re imagining things. The problem is that in learning to read these signs, we become too attuned, seeing ... See more

Bombarded by information from “all directions and all at once,” in the words of McLuhan, we seek structure. The internet forces us to search, consciously or not, for anything that promises to make the chaos coherent—to pattern-match. This explains the appeal of fandom as much as the appeal of authoritarian ideologies: they both promise a frame thro... See more